Lollipop lady Sylvia Barker has all the other traffic licked as she whizzes off to work on her mini-scooter.

The people of Acomb have got used to seeing the yellow blur that is Sylvia as she scoots along in her fluorescent coat on her way to crossing patrol duty at Westfield Primary School.

Sylvia, 52, of Cornlands Road, had a scooter as a child so, when her grandson turned up on her doorstep with an ultra-trendy micro-scooter, she could not resist joining the club.

Sylvia explained: "I bought it in January. My grandson had one and we used to have to go the long way round when we walked to school so he could use it. I was a bit jealous because I was having to walk.

"It's brilliant. You can put them in the back of your car, you can put them on the bus, you can even take them abroad, although I haven't done that yet.

"I sometimes go all the way to Burton Stone Lane on it with my grandson. We get all over.

"And when I'm waiting for the kids outside the school, I scoot up and down on it."

Although the scooters are usually considered the preserve of the young, Sylvia had no qualms about breaking with tradition.

"Why should kids have all the fun?" she said.

"When they see me flying down Askham Lane at noon, all the builders wave and the taxi drivers beep their horns at me when I go past."

But upwardly mobile Sylvia is reluctant to stop at scooting.

She said: "I'm thinking about getting a pair of those new roller skates where you can fold up the skates and they turn into shoes."

Updated: 10:54 Tuesday, May 01, 2001